What does being a young carer mean?

What does being a young carer mean?

A young carer is someone under 18 who helps look after someone in their family who is ill, disabled or misuses drugs or alcohol.

Surrey Young Carers is here to support you if you are aged 5-18, living in Surrey and are providing practical or emotional care for a member of your family with a long-term illness, physical disability or learning difficulty, mental ill health or substance or alcohol dependency.

You may be providing practical help such as making meals, or physical help like helping your mum get dressed. You may be looking after other children or perhaps your brother or sister is the person in your family needing extra care.

Young carers very often provide emotional support as well and can feel very lonely.

I know I am not alone, a lot of people are in the same position. Today was fun to learn about autism.

Young carer, Surrey

There are an estimated 14,000 young carers in Surrey and our dedicated Surrey Young Carers team is here to help. We provide a range of support depending on the situation, from activities to give time out from the caring role and the chance to meet children in a similar position, to more intensive groups and tailored one-to-one help, for young carers in a more difficult situation.

Get in touch

If you’d like to get in touch with us to find out more about the service and how it can help you, please call us on 01483 568 269, or email [email protected]

My mum suffers with diabetes so I’ve helped her from a young age, testing her blood sugar level and getting sugary snacks when she needs them. When the disease took its toll on mum’s sight, I also started shopping, cooking, collecting prescriptions. And I support her when she feels down.

Lucy, young carer, Surrey

Find out more about Surrey Young Carers

girls paddling

How SYC can help

Our dedicated Surrey Young Carers team support children under 18 with workshops, forums and time-out activities, helping them have a break from caring and enjoy just being kids.

young people with bowling ball

Aged 18-24?

Our Young Adult Carer team supports 18-24 year old carers with information, events, and social activities.

SYC referral

Refer a child or young person to Surrey Young Carers to apply for our support. Call us on 01483 568269 or email [email protected]

Click here for our SYC support application form

Hear from some of our young carers

We support lots of young carers, each with their own unique caring situation. Meet some of them below.

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